ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Water
Sec. Water and Built Environment
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2025.1566161
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Groundwater Remediation with Thermal Energy Storage for Sustainable Urban DevelopmentView all articles
Temperature-associated effects on methanogenesis and microbial reductive dechlorination of trichloroethene in contaminated aquifer sediments
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Technical Biogeochemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, Leipzig, Germany
- 2Department of Applied Geology, Geochemistry and Environmental, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
- 3Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) is a subsurface technology for urban heating and cooling. However, ATES systems may intersect with legacy groundwater contaminants from past anthropogenic activities. Chlorinated ethenes, particularly tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE), are common pollutants that can undergo microbial reductive dechlorination to cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), vinyl chloride (VC) and ultimately ethene. Since microbial activity is temperature dependent, heat storage in ATES systems may influence dechlorination efficiency. The study assessed the effect of temperature on microbial reductive dechlorination and community composition using sediment from a contaminated aquifer in Ferrara, Italy, where VC accumulation is of concern. Laboratory microcosms were amended with TCE and lactate, incubated at 10–60°C, and monitored for 105 days. Complete dechlorination to ethene occurred at 10–20°C and was linked to Dehalogenimonas spp... cis-DCE and VC accumulated at 30°C and 40°C, respectively, while no dechlorination activity was observed at 50 and 60°C, suggesting temperature-related inhibition. Methanogenesis occurred between 10-40°C and was associated with Methanosarcina, Methanothrix (mainly in non-TCE-amended controls), and Methanomicrobia (10-30°C). Methanogenic activity was absent above 40°C and delayed at 10°C. These results suggest that microbial dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes is impaired at temperatures exceeding 40°C. Therefore, integrating low- or medium-temperature (<40°C) ATES with enhanced natural attenuation may offer a viable strategy for simultaneous energy storage and bioremediation in chlorinated solvent-contamination aquifers.
Keywords: ATES, Reductive dechlorination, methanogenesis, temperature, Chlorinated ethenes, bioremediation
Received: 24 Jan 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bin Hudari, DEB, Vogt, Filippini and Nijenhuis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ivonne Nijenhuis, Department of Technical Biogeochemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, Leipzig, Germany
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